HELPFUL FINDINGS

Through-The-Earth

• This communication technology is used by underground workers to communicate through solid media such as rocks and coal.
• The technology relies on very low frequency transmissions to provide mines, subways, tunnel workers and pipelines with wireless communication, sensor monitoring and data analysis, such as to trigger emergency warnings.
• The system is widely accessible (it is sold by Vital Alert Communication Inc.) but does not cover large distances, that is, it only enables audio transmissions for up to 1000 feet of distance.

Additional helpful findings

•  Low-frequency transmissions have the ability to travel through earth, including coal and rocks.
• Ultrasound waves have the ability to travel through metal, but communication technologies that use ultrasonic waves to transmit data are still largely tested and in the development processes.

RESEARCH STRATEGY

Limitations of Wired Technology

• The definition of Wired Technology is communication between devices using a physical connector, such as cables, to transfer the data between the two (or more) devices.
• The communication must be connected by wires to be considered wired. The only way a wired communication is capable of moving through the earth or metals is if the wire or cabling runs through these as well. Wired communications move through anything a physical wire can be placed in, under, or around.

Relatively Available

•  Wired communication is limited by network technology. Any device is able to be plugged into the network. Even the most technologically advanced devices are limited by immobile infrastructure and the restraints this creates.
• By definition, wired networks cannot be small. The mode of transport prevents this. Wired Communications are network, not device-dependent. Technology, on a device level, is not typically orientated toward wired communications.
• The fastest wired technologies relate to infrastructure.

High-Speed Ethernet Cabling

• Wired communications are limited by the speed of the internet provided commercially. High-speed internet cabling has little impact on the speed of communication. The internet connection itself will always create a bottleneck.
• A local area network (LAN) is not affected by the internet connection speed. Ethernet cables are the best wiring option on a LAN. They are typically faster and have lower latency than comparable WIFI (wireless) options.
• A high-speed ethernet cable is the fastest technology available for communication over a LAN.
• The fastest ethernet cabling at the current time is Category 7 (connection type), with a 1,000 MHz maximum bandwidth. This cabling will allow transfers of up to 10 GB per second.

Fiber Optic Networks

•  Fiber Optic Networks transmit data through pulses of light, allowing for the quick transfer of data.
• Currently, the data transmission is by the color of the light and whether it is horizontal or vertical. This means fiber-optic speeds are limited.
• Commercial fiber optic transmits at around 10 GB per second.
• Developing technology twists the light pulse into a spiral. The resulting 100 fold speed increase is significant.

Energy Science Network (ESNet)

•  ESNet is a fiber-optic network transferring data across the US, and more recently between the US and Europe, at high speeds.
• ESNet hosted the fastest wired communication of data, a 91 gigabytes per second transfer, between Denver and the NASA Goddard Institute of Flight in Maryland under "real world" conditions, in 2014.
• The fastest transfer is 1.4 terabit per second. That was under test conditions.
• ESNet is administered by the US Department of Energy, and based on the principle, geography should never limit scientific discovery. It links scientific research centers around the world, allowing the fast transfer of data for research.
• A private fiber-optic network is used to transfer the data. It is dark fiber. This fiber has been laid, but not utilized by the commercial networks.
• This fiber is sold to various organizations to use as private networks free of the clutter attached to commercial networks.

Quantum Networks

• The largest Quantum Network in the US was developed by Brooklyn National Laboratory at Stony Brook University. The project falls under the umbrella of the Northeast Quantum Services Center. It utilizes the ESNet to connect buildings over an 11-mile route using quantum entanglement technology.
• Although similar technology has been deployed in China and Europe, the work by the Northeast Quantum Service Center is arguably superior. It uses portable entanglement sources. They can be mounted to standard data center computer racks, and connected to regular fiber distribution panels.
• In layman terms, this technology can be deployed over a fiber-optic network and doesn't require new infrastructure development. Even more simplistically, it can supercharge the internet.
•  Photons created at the same time, date, and location in space, become entangled. This means that the behavior of one proton is influenced by the other, regardless of the distance between them.
• By utilizing this phenomenon, data can effectively be "teleported" between locations. Although the technology is still in its infancy, when fully developed, protons will be used to transfer data, known as qubits (the equivalent of binary bits). In theory, there is no maximum distance for the teleportation, making it wireless. The entanglement may be lost when the distance increases.
• Using fiber optic cable limits this. The maximum distance traveled to date is around 50 km. At this point, the quantum information needs to be regenerated by a quantum memory device (the equivalent of a connector). This technology is still in the development phase, so the Quantum Network is limited currently.
• Quantum Networks will lack the limitations of traditional networks. They offer computational processing speeds, security, and privacy that cannot be paralleled by any other network currently available.

Research Strategy